Steam Whistle’s Green Initiatives… More than just the bottles!

Our company is as green as our bottles — maybe even greener! Aside from our environmentally friendly bottles that can be reused over 45 times, Steam Whistle has implemented a ton of other environmentally conscious practices (beware, we’re about to humble brag). Keep reading to find out why your favourite green beer is even greener than you think, so you can feel good about cracking one open and supporting one of greenest of green Canadian companies.

1. Renewable Energy

For over ten years, Steam Whistle has partnered with Bullfrog Power (another of those green Canadian companies) for 100% clean, renewable energy to power our facilities. Bullfrog helps us ensure every speck of electricity we use is coming from green sources like wind and low-impact hydro power from EcoLogo certified energy facilities, because sustainable companies are our pals.

2. Bio Diesel

We want to get your beer to you in the greenest way possible: our delivery trucks use bio diesel made from soya and recycled restaurant oil almost 100% of the time for deliveries. We also work to ensure our fleet is as green as possible, opting for efficient vehicles like the Smart car, Minis, different types of hybrids, and an automatic MAC Trucks tractor trailer to minimize our footprint. And of course, we never skip a service visit, which helps us maintain fuel efficiency.

3. Air Conditioning

When the temperature gets hot, we stay cool with Enwave’s Deep Water Cooling. No more standard, energy-guzzling A/C for us; instead, we cut out the environmentally harmful refrigerants and rely on the chill from cold water pipes to keep us (and our beers) comfortable, cut down on our energy bill, and reduce our carbon dioxide output.

4. Steam Heating

Steam Whistle takes a cue from its own name and uses the most efficient form of heat (steam—duh) to heat our water for brewing and to heat the facilities. We take only as much steam as we need as we need it, because being greedy isn’t our speed.

5. Energy Efficiency

In 2008, we went ahead and installed a brand spanking new state-of-the-art brew house that not only cuts down on our previous water use by two thirds, but also helps us reduce our energy use. Plus, we use motion detectors to help lower power usage, energy efficient light bulbs and fixtures, and a power capacitor to make our power usage more efficient. It may sound like technical mumbo jumbo, it’s all part of what makes us among the top Canadian green companies..

6. Water Conservation

Breweries tend to go through a ton of water, so we’ve installed water-saving equipment to help cut down on our usage, and have trained our staff on water-savings techniques. And since that wasn’t quite good enough for us, we also eliminated phosphates from our cleaning agents to avoid contaminating waste water to hopefully make our waste water drinkable eventually. We like to dream big here at Steam Whistle!

7. Waste Diversion

We love to host big, fun parties, but we can’t stand seeing the leftover food go to waste. This is why we send any leftover food to Good Shepherd to feed those in need. We also (of course) compost organic waste, and ensure that production line materials are recycled and spent grain is reused for animal feed, which helps us divert 98% of our waste from landfills.

8. Green Office

We take corporate sustainability seriously, which is why we’ve transformed our office into a digital space in an attempt to cut our paper use in half. We also choose eco-friendly inks and paper and recycle our electronics, because being green is our scene.